


The Other Option

by ethr33gee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And all the other kiddos of the class, F/F, F/M, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, had fun coming up with this so i hope you enjoy it too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-09-26 13:30:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17142629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ethr33gee/pseuds/ethr33gee
Summary: Both Wayzz and Master Fu sense the Butterfly Miraculous come under a negative aura, and so Master Fu sets out to grant those chosen with Miraculous of their own. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is given one, only the other is granted to Rose Lavillant. Together they are LadyBlush and Chat Régalien, Paris' own superhero duo that will stop at nothing to get back the Butterfly Miraculous!





	1. The Whole World Is Watching You

**Author's Note:**

> i badly drew what i picture their suits to look like, and once i figure out how to upload them onto here I'll have them for y'all, but if any of y'all are curious about them just ask me and I'll prolly go into obnoxious detail about it :)

Marinette supposed that after she found that magical ring in her room she should stop being surprised by things, but literally having a magical girl transformation and being tasked to fight evil with the help of a small black cat helper was a lot to process. Especially when, told to keep her identity a secret, she gets found out within  _ seconds _ of meeting her partner meant to help her fight said evil. And  _ even more  _ especially when her partner turns out to be Rose, her semi-good friend she’s known since forever. Rose, a sweet, gentle girl who was now supposed to fight evil with her. Marinette didn’t know why they were the ones chosen, Plagg hadn’t told her much before demanding cheese, but just when she thinks it wouldn’t be so bad being partnered up with Rose, an Akuma- the evil they were to fight- roared to life.

 

“Uh, do we have to?” Marinette asks as she takes out her whip, something she was very hesitant to use.

 

“Come on, Ma- Chat Régalien. It’ll be fun!” Rose claims, but Marinette isn’t too sure about that.

 

“If you say so, LadyBlush,” Marinette moans out, watching Rose fly away. Why couldn’t she get magical flying wings? Whipping around with her whip was tiring and heart attack inducing.

 

It was still weird getting used to saying Rose’s superhero name, but they couldn’t slip up if they didn’t want other people to know who they were. She could already hear Plagg’s half-hearted scolding when she got him back from wherever he went.

 

They follow the shouting to the stadium where they had gym class, where Ivan had their classmates cornered.

 

**“KIIIIIIMMM!”** Ivan roared and Marinette flinched from the volume of it. She wanted to cover her ears to block out the noise. Before she could ask Rose what was the plan, she just flew down and stood between Ivan and Kim, who had tripped.

 

“Hey! It’s not nice to pick on those smaller than you!” Rose shouts at Ivan, who chuckles.

 

“I guess you’re talking about yourself,” Ivan says with more laughter. Rose grabs her staff, wand thingy and hits him across the head, which doesn’t do any damage at all and it even looks like it made Ivan bigger somehow.

 

“Where are you M- Partner?” Rose asks as she dives after Alya, barely saving her from the net Ivan tossed across the room.

 

“Come on, Cat Girl!” Marinette hears Alya shout at her. “The whole world is watching you!”

 

Normally that would make Marinette clam up even more, but seeing Rose struggle against Ivan made her straighten her spine and jump down off the stadium roof to the pitch.

 

“Bug cruelty? How shameful!” She cries out as she lands, whip at the ready despite her growing fear that she shouldn’t use it.

 

“Chat!” Rose calls out, a relieved look on her face. Marinette mouths an apology before turning to face Ivan.

 

“Is it just me or does he get bigger and stronger with every attack?” she asks Rose to see if maybe she wasn’t making things up.

 

“Yeah, looks like we’ll have to use our other powers,” Rose says and Marinette sighs out. So it wasn’t her just seeing things.

 

“Uh, I don’t really remember what mine was called,” she confessed, but Rose just giggles.

 

“Were you even listening to your Kwami?”

 

“Yes?” Rose giggles again before twirling her staff wand thingy.

 

“Lucky Charm!” She shouts out, a pink spotted wetsuit landing in her arms.

 

“What was that?”

 

“I can create objects that help defeat the A-Akumas. I think she said you destroy things, but I don’t know how you do that.”

 

“O-Okay, so what now?” Marinette looks at the wetsuit and then back at Ivan. “How’re we supposed to use that to open his hand?”

 

“Open his hand?”

 

“Yeah. I figure that’s where the Akuma is since he never opens it, like he’s guarding it from us.”

 

“Ma- Chat Régalien that’s brilliant!” Rose cries out, briefly hugging Marinette before grabbing the hose and taping it to the wetsuit. “Get ready!”

 

Marinette didn’t have time to brace herself before Rose picks her up and tosses her at Ivan, who catches her in his bare hand.

 

“Thanks, LadyBlush,” Marinette says sarcastically, arms grinding painfully against her ribs.

 

“Catch me if you can, Stoneheart!” Rose shouts as she jumps straight at him.

 

Marinette would’ve shouted out to stop her if she hadn’t realized her plan. Ivan drops whatever was in his hand to catch Rose who turns to where Alya is.

 

“You there, turn the spout!” Alya immediately complies, the phone in her hand not dropping a bit as she leans over to turn on the water.

 

Luckily Rose was so small, so she easily slipped from Ivan’s hand and back down to the pitch. She picked up the black ball and ripped it up, a black butterfly appearing out of it. Marinette was dropped to the ground before she could think to wonder what that was about, her butt hurting at the impact.

 

“What’s going on? What am I doing here?” Ivan asks, now back to his normal, non-stone self.

 

“We did it!” Marinette says jumping to stand back up. She looks over to see Rose point her staff at the butterfly, the tip of it opening up and sucking the butterfly into it. A staff twirl later and the tip opens up again to show a now pure white butterfly flying out. “Uh, R- LadyBlush what was that?”

 

“Our job is to catch and purify the Akuma,” Rose tells her as if she should already know that. Marinette feels like she needs to have a longer discussion with Plagg after this.

 

“Right, of course.” She looks around at the damage done and winces. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to conjure a magical pushbroom, would you?”

 

“Watch this!” Rose says excitedly, going over to the wetsuit and tossing it in the air. “Miraculous LadyBlush!” The wetsuit dissolves into little pink ladybugs that sweep around them and somehow magically fix everything back to how it was before Ivan became stone and wreaked havoc.

 

“Wow!” Marinette gasps out, a little jealous and now wondering just what her own powers would be. She gives Rose a high five and they both giggle. Something beeps and Rose places a hand on her ear.

 

“Gotta go before I turn into a pumpkin! Let’s meet up later, yeah?” She says before her wings lift her into the air and she’s off in the direction of the school.

 

Marinette turns to see a still confused Ivan. She goes over and picks up the crumpled paper and walks to him.

 

“‘You haven’t even got the guts to tell Mylène you love her, wuss’,” Marinette reads aloud, a frown on her face.

 

“Kim wrote it,” Ivan tells her. “He’s always making fun of me.”

 

“You know, you shouldn’t let him get to you. There’s no shame in telling someone you love them, I- I- Uhh, sir?” Marinette ends lamely, mentally slapping her forehead at her near slip-up. One person knowing who she is was enough.

 

“Uncanny, amazing, spectacular! Are you guys going to protect Paris from now on? How did you get your powers? Did you get scratched by a radioactive siamese cat? Oh, I’ve got a ton of questions to ask you, uh, miss… uhh..” Alya shoves in, talking fast before tripping over the fact that she didn’t know Marinette’s name.

 

“Chat Régalien,” Marinette says, wondering if the name her and Rose came up with was good or not. “My partner, LadyBlush and I will certainly do all we can to protect those under the influence of the Akumas.” She wonders if she should’ve said less or if she should say more, but Rose was the one who knew the most so when she gets away and back to school, she’ll tell Rose so they can work together on the information they spread about. “Just think of us as your friendly Parisian superheroes!” She says with a wink before being so embarrassed by that coming out of her mouth that she takes her whip and makes it take her somewhere else before she slips up even more.

 

She lands on her balcony, thankful that she barely remembered where she was when the Akuma went down. She bounces from her bed to the floor wondering if she still has Rose’s correct number when she spots herself in her floor length mirror.

 

“What happened to my hair!” She shouts, hands coming up to the wild, windblown locks. It looked like she had slept with her hair in her pigtails and hadn’t bothered to cinch them tight, but even that was a distant worry compared to the fact that the hair closest to her ears had turned a dark brown that faded into the cat ears resting atop her head.

 

If only she could remember how to get out of this get up! She closed her eyes super tight and thought about her normal clothes, but when she opened them again, she was still dressed like a siamese cat, her blue eyes practically glowing beside the deep brown of her mask. With a sigh she plops herself on her chaise, a groan making its way out of her throat. At least she would look good if she was to be like this for the rest of her life.

 

“Plagg! Transform me back!” She shouts in desperation and suddenly a green light overtakes her and she falls to the ground as Plagg comes floating up out of nowhere.

 

“That’s all you had to say,” he tells her, voice grating as he looks at her with amused eyes.

 

“Like you  _ told  _ me that!” She tells him, throwing a pillow at him, but he easily dodges it.

 

“Not my fault you didn’t listen.” He shrugs as best he can before zooming around her room.  “I’m hungry! Feed me!” He declares shooting to come back in front of her face.

 

“What do you even eat?” She asks him. “If you say mice, I’m not buying any for you, you’ll have to hunt those yourself.”

 

“Puh-lease! Why mess with those fur heads when I can have something a thousand times better!”

 

“Which is?” She was tired and hungry herself, she didn’t have time for his games.

 

“Camembert,” he tells her, sighing dreamily as he thinks about the cheese. Her nose curls in disgust.

 

“Of all the delicious cheeses out there, you had to pick the stinkiest,” she comments not really understanding how a cat could eat cheese and also not caring enough to wonder if it would kill him. He was a magical flying, talking cat, if he said he ate cheese, she’d believe him.

 

“Camembert is the best!” Plagg defends as Marinette goes downstairs to the family kitchen. She puts her head in the fridge to see what they have and comes out with the makings for sandwiches.

 

“Camembert is good, yes, but it’s also the smelliest cheese I’ve come across,” Marinette says taking a slice of chicken and laying it on the bread. “Can you eat other cheese’s or is it just Camembert? Because we only ever order it for certain dishes at the bakery, and I’d rather not steal from my parents.”

 

“Other cheeses are fine,” Plagg says as he sniffs the chunk of sharp cheddar she had placed on the counter for him. “I just like Camembert the most.”

 

“I’ll tell Papa I’m having Camembert cravings when I leave and see if he’ll make any cheese bread with it, okay?”

 

“You’re the best!” Plagg says around the cheese in his mouth. Marinette laughs at him, the clock catching her eye making her jerk in surprise.

 

“I’m gonna be late!” She shoves the sandwich in her mouth, grabs her backpack where she dropped it and darts down the stairs to the bakery, Plagg flying to her shoulder bag without her saying so.

 

She’s lucky she lives so close to school, otherwise she would’ve been even more late, the sandwich a bit dry as it was just cold chicken and bread in her rush to get back.

 

Alya was on her the second she came through the doors, shoving her phone in her face to look at the screen.

 

“I call it the LadyBlog,” Alya says in lieu of a greeting. “Bringing you all the latest news about the two new superheroes LadyBlush and Chat Régalien!” She scrolls down a bit. “Check out the number of views since I posted a video!”

 

“Wo-ow, Alya, that’s great!” Marinette says, making sure her hair (which had turned back to just black, thank goodness) wouldn’t give her away as Chat. Her fake smile hurt her face, but then she saw Rose and the wink Rose sent her made her relax.

 

“So you really don’t remember anything?” Alix says, making Marinette look over to where a crowd had gathered around Ivan.

 

“You were totally going ballistic,” Juleka says waving her hands as she talks. “It was awesome.” Marinette saw Rose flinch beside her, but nobody else did.

 

“You were seriously out to crush me, dude!” Kim shouts and Ivan curls inwards.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ivan says looking down at the ground. “I wasn’t myself.”

 

Chloe scoffs at Ivan and Marinette moves towards the crowd. _All that was necessary for the_ _triumph of evil was for good people to do nothing._ And Marinette had just defeated a stone monster, she was done with doing nothing.

 

“Once a monster, always a monster,” Chloe sneers at Ivan. He gets up and marches away, jaw clenched and face scrunched up in anger. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!” She calls out after him, laughing her high and mighty laugh that Marinette hates so much.

 

In her rush to get back to school Marinette forgot to talk more about her powers with Plagg, so she didn’t know if a person could turn back into an Akuma, but she didn’t want to chance it.

 

“How could you say that to Ivan?” Alya shouts at Chloe as Marinette makes her way to where Ivan stomped off. “You’re the real Stoneheart.” At least she knew that someone would stick up for the poor boy.

 

“Ivan?” Marinette calls out as she gets to the locker room. She peeks in to see Ivan curled up by a couple of stray lockers and goes over to sit next to him.

 

“Leave me alone,” he says, arms coming up to his chest.

 

“You know, you should tell Mylène how you feel,” Marinette tells him.

 

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ivan says, shoulders going tense.

 

“Come on, I saw the way you look at her,” Marinette says, but she sees him tense even further and backtracks. “No, I’m not going to make fun of you, Ivan! I- I think she might like you back, is all. You should talk to her.”

 

“I’m not good with words,” Ivan says, but he looks less angry which Marinette counts as a win.

 

“But… who needs words?” She thinks suddenly. “You could draw her a picture, send her flowers-”

 

“I could… write her a song,” Ivan adds and Marinette smiles at him.

 

“That’s a great idea! What girl wouldn’t love a love song written especially for her? Go for it, Ivan!”

 

He gives her a small smile. “Thanks, Marinette.”

 

“No problem! And if you’re having trouble with it or need to test it out, come find me. I’ll try to help as best I can.” They stand and she looks over at the clock and sighs. “Well, at least we’ll be late together.”

 

Ivan gives her a small laugh and they exit the locker room. They get to the classroom door and Ivan pauses.

 

“Thanks again, Marinette,” he tells her shyly.

 

“Any time, Ivan,” Marinette says with a wide smile, hoping he felt at least a little bit better. The only thing she really knew about the Akumas was that it wasn’t his fault he got turned into one.

 

They entered and he went up the stairs towards his seat by Mylène and Marinette braced herself for more talk about LadyBlush and Chat Régalien with Alya, when Rose appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her arm.

 

“Marinette, come site by Nathaniel,” she says, pulling her up the stairway by the door.

 

“But I wanted to sit by Alya,” Marinette says looking over to see her and a blonde boy talking. Her hands were on her hips and he was waving his hands around, it looked like he was apologizing or trying to calm her down, she couldn’t tell from here.

 

“But what about our-” she leans in close and whispers, “ _ Secret.” _ She looks around to see if anyone heard her and Marinette sighs.

 

“We can talk after school, right? You could even come over to my place and we can get more information from them. But I don’t want to just abandon Alya when I just made her my friend.”

 

Rose lets go of her arm. “You’re right, sorry, Mari.”

 

“It’s okay. You still have the same number as last year, right?”

 

“Yep, still the same!”

 

“Cool, I’ll text you and that way you’ll have my number.”

 

“Good, because I want to talk about your interview with the newbie.” Marinette gulped, but Rose just winked and giggled. “That was cute.”

 

“Wa- Was it?” Marinette wanted the floor to engulf her she was so embarrassed. 

 

“Alright, class,” Miss Bustier says and Marinette rushes to her seat. “Pay attention for attendance.”

 

Marinette scrambles to gather her supplies and looks over to her left to see the blonde boy, she couldn’t shake why he was so familiar.

 

“Alya?” She whispers to her right.

 

“What’s up?”

 

“Who was that blonde boy you were talking to?”

 

“Oh, I thought he was putting gum on your seat, but now I think he was trying to get it off before it could be sat on. He’s friends with that Chloe girl, so I’m thinking she put it there and he was getting rid of it.”

 

“Dupain-Cheng, Marinette,” Miss Bustier calls out and Marinette snaps her head forwards.

 

“Present,” she calls out a little too loudly, which makes the class giggle, but at least she wasn’t called out for not paying attention. She looks to her left and sees the blonde boy looking at her with a small smile. She returns it, but Chloe’s death glare catches her eye and she turns her head to face forward again.

 

If that was the way Chloe was going to play it, then she’ll just leave well enough alone. What with her being a superhero and all, that was too much on her plate just to deal with that brat.


	2. The Ominous Vibes

She was thankful school didn’t seem to drag on like it usually did. She even made plans with Alya for the next day! Marinette was totally getting the hang of having a best friend.

 

“Marinette!” Rose calls out. It startles her, which isn’t a good thing as she was on the stairs going down at the time. She slips and falls the last couple of steps down and braces herself for the ground, but instead she slams into someone and they go collapsing to the ground.

 

“Dupain-Cheng! You better watch where you’re going! You could’ve hurt Adrikins!” Chloe yells out from underneath Marinette.

 

“Sorry, Chloe,” Marinette stutters out, scrambling to get up. She reaches out her hand to pick up Chloe as well, but Chloe just holds her hand out to the blonde boy, who takes it with a sigh. It seems like he’s used to her antics, then. “You okay?” She asks, just to be nice.

 

“No, I’m not okay! You bruised me with your stupid elbows! And god, how much do you even weigh! Stop sneaking treats from your parents stupid bakery and maybe you’ll be light enough not to crush someone!” Chloe shrieks at her, red in the face.

 

“Chloe!” Rose calls out as she steps up beside Marinette. “That wasn’t a very nice thing to say!”

 

“Oh, who cares? It’s all true,” Chloe sniffs flicking her hair over her shoulder.

 

Marinette could tell Rose was gearing up to say more, but she just takes her by the elbow and steers them away. “It’s okay, Rose, I know Chloe’s just mad I got dirt on her favorite jacket. Sorry again, Chloe.” And with that she drags Rose through the light rain making sure to avoid the puddles.

 

“Marinette! You shouldn’t just brush off her comments!” Rose scolds as they enter the little hallway between the bakery and the upstairs of their house.

 

“Before you became LadyBlush you wouldn’t even talk back to her, Rose,” Marinette points out. “None of us did.” She could see Rose was hurt by this but it was the truth. None of them wanted the direct wrath of Chloe. “I’m glad you gained confidence, Rose, but I was just trying to avoid a conflict.”

 

Rose sniffs a little, wiping the rain water from her face. “No, it’s true, we all heard her comments and prayed they were never directed at us. But, being ladyBlush has made me realise that I can’t be like that anymore. It was such a thrill flying through the air and being able to defeat that Akuma with you!” Rose gushes and Marinette laughs.

 

“I guess it was a little fun,” she admits. She takes off her wet shoes and gestures for Rose to do the same. “I’m just going to say hello to my parents, you can go up and let yourself in. You remember where my room was?”

 

“All the way up!” Rose says, but before she can leave something pops it’s way from her bookbag.

 

“Do I smell cookies?” It says and it takes all of Marinette’s strength not to shriek.

 

_ “It- It’s a mouse bug!” _ She shouts hoarsely, so it comes out more like a stage whisper with the force of her surprise and trying to keep the noise down to not alert her parents.

 

“Oh, right, you two haven’t met yet. Marinette, this is Tikki, my Kwami,” Rose says calmly like this Tikki wasn’t some mouse bug type thing. At least Plagg looked like a little cute black cat!

 

“R-Right,” Marinette says trying to calm herself down. “Nice to meet you, Tikki.” Her smile is strained but at least she didn’t act on her urge to throw something.

 

“Nice to meet you, too, Marinette,” Tikki says with a bright smile. “Would you mind bringing me some cookies?” She asks sniffing the air and Marinette can feel her heart return to a normal rate.

 

“Sure, of course. What kind do you like the most?” She wonders if Tikki’s tastes were as weird as Plagg’s.

 

“Chocolate chip will be fine,” Tikki says with another smile.

 

“No problem.” Marinette turns once more and walks to the door that leads into the back end of the bakery. “Maman, Papa, I’m off from school.”

 

“Marinette, dear,” her maman greets. They hug and it wasn’t until then that Marinette feels herself relax completely. Today had been far too stressful. “How was school?”

 

“Okay,” she says, hoping her maman wouldn’t bring up the Akuma. By the look her maman gives her, she knows it would be brought up later when there weren’t customers to wait on.

 

“Hey, Papa.”

 

“Marinette!” Her Papa says giving her a big bear hug. “Are you okay? You weren’t caught up with that monster were you?”

 

“No, Papa,” Marinette says, leaning into his hug. “I was fine.”

 

“Good. I was so worried for you,” he says and her heart aches to keep this secret from them.

 

“I’m sorry about that,” she says. “Uhm, I have a friend over and was wondering if I could take some cookies up with me?”

 

“Of course! You know you can do that any time,” her Papa says with a kiss to her head.

 

“Oh, also, I’ve been craving those camembert cheese breads and was wondering if we could maybe make some soon?” She gave him the doe eyes he never said no to.

 

“Sabine, come and look at our darling daughter!” He calls out with a laugh. “Of course, sweetheart. I’ll see if we can purchase some right away!”

 

“You’re the best, Papa!” She tells him, hugging him once more and giving him a big kiss on his cheek.

 

“I’m Super Papa!” He says, posing with a baguette in his hand. She giggles at him.

 

“Thank you, Super Papa!” She says before picking up a tray of cookies and croissants. “You happy, Plagg?” She asks when she’s all the way at the top of the stairs.

 

“I will be when the camembert gets here,” he says, flying out of her purse and floating next to her head.

 

“You’re impossible,” she tells him, but makes sure to give him a piece of Limburger, careful of not getting any on her skin as it was a particularly stinky brand. He gasps in delight and takes it eagerly.

 

“I see you’ve gotten to know Plagg really well,” Tikki says at the foot of the stairs leading up to her room. Her eyes were on the tray of cookies in her hand and Marinette smiled at this. Seems all Kwami were alike.

 

“He’s not so bad, if you get past the cheese smell,” Marinette says holding out a cookie for Tikki to take.

 

It is immediately gone in one bite and Tikki doesn’t look one bit of ashamed.

 

“She eats like there’s a black hole in her stomach,” Rose comments at the top of the stairs.

 

“I guess transforming us takes up a lot of energy,” Marinette says, going up to join Rose in her room.

 

“Got it in one, princess,” Plagg says, but thankfully he had no cheese in his mouth this time.

 

“Will we be this hungry?” Marinette asks going to pull out an old notebook to write down the information.

 

“Not like us, as we’re the ones actually performing the magic,” Tikki says atop her cookie mountain. “But it’s your physical energy that will be expended once fighting, and you’ll definitely need more food to compensate for the sheer amount of energy being expended.”

 

Marinette writes this down before looking over at Plagg.

 

“I’d like to know what my powers are. Do I get ones like Rose? Like, will I be able to fix things back to normal?”

 

“Unfortunately, that is something only one wearing my earrings can do. As the Kwami of Creation, I am able to do many things, but the wielder of the ring of Destruction is just as powerful,” Tikki explains. Marinette deflates a bit before perking up.

 

“So, what’ll my powers be?”

 

“It differs from wielder to wielder, but most get the power of ultimate destruction, which is Cataclysm. It only lasts for one item until you build up your powers, but once used you will transform back in five minutes,” Plagg tells her playing with the last bit of Lindberger.

 

“Do you know if I have that?”

 

Plagg shoots Tikki a look before turning to Rose. “You have that footage of the fight?” he asks her and she scrambles to pull it up on her phone.

 

As soon as Tikki lays eyes on Marinette’s transformed self she lets out a big gasp and looks between Plagg and Marinette.

 

“What? What is it?” Marinette asks, feeling cared. Did she do the transformation wrong? Was she not the one meant to have the ring? Were they going to make her give it back? Would she have to forget everything about this day? Oh gosh, they were going to wipe her memories and maybe even accidentally mess with her old ones! She didn’t want to forget! She-

 

“Marinette calm down!” Plagg yells in front of her face, snapping her out of her rambling.

 

“What’s wrong?” Rose asks, arm coming up to give Marinette a side hug. 

 

“I’ve never not had a black cat wielder,” Plagg says, plopping the last bit of cheese in his mouth, trying to come off as laid back, but Marinette could see a small puff of fur on the back of his neck bristle.

 

“I-Is it bad that I’m not?” Marinette asks hoping the answer was that it was fine, but unexpected. “I- I’m not  _ hurting _ , you am I?” She looks over the Kwami, but Rose stops her before she could go down another mind spiral.

 

“No, you’re not hurting me,” Plagg reassures her, concern for her in his eyes. He looks over at Tikki and they share some kind of mental conversation before Tikki sighs and nods.

 

“We’ve never had chosens go to him this early, but it looks like we’ll have no choice,” Tikki says.

 

“Got to w-who?” Marinette asks, not understanding what this all meant and still a little more than scared she was hurting Plagg somehow.

 

“The Guardian,” Tikki tells them, eating up the last cookie. “Come on, we need to go now. No doubt he’s already aware of the situation.”

 

“Uh, okay?” Marinette says gathering up her purse and house keys. Rose meets her confused look with a shrug and they head back downstairs. She says bye to her parents and they go back out, the rain having calmed down for the evening it seems.

 

“Are you sure I’m not hurting you?” Marinette whispers to Plagg as they ride the bus to where this Guardian lived.

 

“I’ll be fine, princess,” Plagg tells her, coming out of the purse once they’re off the bus to give her a lick on the cheek before going back inside. It was odd how reassuring that was, but then Tikki told them they were there and she brought her attention back to the shop before them.

 

“I pass by this shop every day to get home,” Rose says and looks as flummoxed as Marinette feels.

 

“We grocery shop right there,” Marinette says pointing to the store across the street. Whoever this Guardian was he wasn’t as far away as Marinette thought he was going to be.

 

Rose knocks on the door and an old man in a bright red hawaiian shirt answers. Tikki comes up and whispers something in his ear and he nods, stepping back so they could enter the shop. Marinette doesn’t miss the way he looks her over. It makes her want to hide and also apologise profusely.

 

“LadyBlush and Chat Régalien, please come in,” the Guardian says sliding open a screen door and going to sit at the raised table.

 

“Master Fu, I know it’s early to do this, but-”

 

“But the circumstances have made it necessary,” Master Fu completes, nodding wisely as he sets out the tea pot.

 

“Y-You’re the one who gave us the Miraculous?” Rose asks a little pale. “But you’re the old man I helped that fell down!” Marinette frowns before thinking it over and realising she knew him, too.

 

“I helped you cross the street and you stole one of my macarons for my class!” Marinette accused and he just smiled smugly at them.

 

“I had to test you to make sure you were worthy,” he tells them, which wasn’t really an answer, not that they had questions.

 

“I’m not hurting Plagg, am I?” Marinette blurts out after a minute of silence. She accepts the tea that Master Fu gives her. He hands one to Rose, too, before taking a sip, everything with precise slow movements.

 

“Only the Kwami can know for certain if their Miraculous is being harmed,” Master Fu tells her after another slow sip of his.

 

“I’ve already told you I’m fine, princess,” Plagg grumbles, arms crossing.

 

“I know but you haven’t told me why me being a siamese cat is bad! I’m just- I don’t want-” Marinette can’t finish through the tears bursting out of her. She was really scared something was wrong with her and she was especially scared she was hurting Plagg. She’s only had him for one day, but the black cat had wormed his way into her heart already.

 

“Oh, Mari!” Rose says, leaning over to hug her, tears in her own eyes.

 

“If I had the Miraculous book, I would know for certain, but it’s been lost to the ages,” Master Fu says stroking his goatee. “It is certainly unusual for a Destruction wielder to be another type of cat. Most unusual indeed.”

 

Which was not helpful in calming Marinette down or easing her fears.

 

“So I’m a freak?” She squeaks out, more tears coming at that prospect.

 

“Hey, no one said that,” Rose tries to reassure her, but Marinette can barely hear her over her own sobbing.

 

“Oh for cheese sake,” Plagg mutters, going over to Marinette and setting a paw on her forehead, which startles her enough to stop crying, though she keeps heaving in air and sniffling. “Listen, princess, you’re not hurting me, okay? The only thing that can hurt me is the absence of cheese.” She lets out a small giggle at that, grateful for his joking way.

 

“We’ll need to test this out,” Master Fu says, a green dot flying over to the table and Marinette doesn’t have the energy to feel surprised at the Kwami’s appearance.

 

“Master, are you sure it’s wise to do so in here?” the Kwami asks and Master Fu nods his head.

 

“Right you are, Wayzz. Come with me ladies.” He gets up and leads them further into the shop before pulling up one of the tatami mats to reveal a hidden staircase leading down into a dark hole.

 

“It’ll be alright,” Tikki tells them, sensing their apprehension. “It’s just an out of the way place where Miraculous users can practice their powers.” Rose and Marinette still looked at each other with fear. They realised that, in their rush to figure out what was happening to Marinette’s Miraculous, they hadn’t told anyone where they were going. No one knew where they were and they didn’t know the man leading them into a dark hole at a shop that  _ no one knew they were at! _

 

“You humans worry too much,” Plagg says before floating down into the darkness.

  
“If you grew up on the horror stories my maman told me you would be scared too, Plagg,” Marinette calls out, not wanting to move from her spot. Rose nods her head enthusiastically at this.

 

“My Mama’s always told me never to go anywhere with strangers,” she says voice quiet for the first time since she became LadyBlush.

 

Suddenly light came on and they could see the staircase take a turn, but beyond it they could see and open space. It made the fear a little bit better, but it would’ve been  _ a lot _ better if they didn’t have to go down there.

 

“Together?” Marinette whispers to Rose, who reaches out and grabs her hand.

 

“O-okay,” Rose says shakily.

 

Together they take the stairs one step at a time, both clutching tightly at the others hand, not even caring about the sweat.

 

When they reached the bottom both of them had relaxed a little at the decorations of the cellar. It looked like an old book shop that had been up for decades. It was nice and cozy and held none of the psycho killer vibes both Rose and Marinette was sure it would hold.

 

“This place was created to help young Miraculous users such as yourselves get used to your powers and to also get used to your partners,” Master Fu said, opening yet another door to what looked like a stereotypical japanese dojo, complete with swords and other weapons lining the walls.

 

“So, if this was where we were meant to practice, then why didn’t we know about you or this place before?” Marinette asks as she looks around the room.

 

“Yeah, Tikki said something about it being too early to know about you,” Rose adds, dropping Marinette’s hand to go over to one of the pictures on the walls. It looked like a bunch of Miraculous users posing for a picture, but what held Marinette’s interest was the giant pit at the far side of the room with different sized poles sticking out of it. She wanted to know if it had spikes at the bottom, but Master Fu turned their attention to the tatami mats section of the place.

 

“I know you have questions, but the answers aren’t for me to give you. Unfortunately, those who would give you them are either dead or not in France,” Master Fu tells them. “You weren’t to know about me until you both got further along in your duties, but Tikki is right, this is an unusual circumstance and the person behind the Butterfly Miraculous might know this as well.”

 

“The what?”

 

“Whoever is using the Akumas is forcing Nooroo, the Transmission Kwami, for evil, something that is not supposed to happen,” Master Fu tells them. “Originally, the Miraculous is intended to create champions for the user, champions of good and helpful to other Miraculous users.”

 

“So someone is misusing the Miraculous? I didn’t know someone could do that. What about the Kwami? Can’t they refuse to be used like that?” Marinette asks, noticing Rose nodding along with her.

 

“Kwami are tied to their Miraculous,” Tikki says. “And Nooroo is a gentle soul, he is most likely being forced to go along with the person behind this. We cannot be physically hurt, but there are ways to hurt us. Unfortunately, we cannot leave our Miraculous behind, so the only thing we can do is guide our users with advice or knowledge of how better use their powers.”

 

“We need to stop him!” Rose shouts out, tears in her eyes. “That poor Kwami.” Now it was Marinette’s turn to comfort her.

 

“I’m glad to hear you say that,” Master Fu says with a solemn look. “I want you to know that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.” Marinette can tell he isn’t talking to her and Rose, but to Tikki and Plagg, but it’s still confusing and she wants to ask what he means.

 

“We know, Master,” Tikki says kindly.

 

“Yeah yeah, let’s just transform and get this over with,” Plagg says looking bored.

 

“But what am I supposed to do once I transform?” Marinette asks. “I still don’t know why it’s a bad thing for me to not be a black cat, or if I’ll even have that Cataclysm power you were talking about.”

 

“It’s not _ bad, _ ” Plagg says with a roll of his eyes. “Just never happened before.”

 

“If it’s never happened before, how do you know if it’s not bad?” Marinette counters.

 

He goes to answer but it looks like she’s stumped him.

 

“Let me see your Miraculous,” Master Fu says coming up to her with his hand held out. She didn’t want to take it off so she offers him her hand. He appraises it, humming as he does so. It was just a flat, silver ring that went to a point over her first knuckle nothing fancy. “And yours?” He asks of Rose. She turns her head to the side so he can look at her earrings. They were cute ear climbers with back flowers leading up them.

 

“What’s wrong?” Rose asks as she hears him hum at looking at hers.

 

“Usually the Miraculous never change features unless the wielder is transformed, but it seems that they have molded to better suit you,” he says rubbing his goatee.

 

“But- Are you saying there have only been men cat holders?” Marinette asks remembering the clunky man ring the Miraculous was before she put it on.

 

“No, there have been wielders of many genders holding each Miraculous, but never have they changed on their own before.” He looked at Tikki and Plagg. 

 

“We have a say in how our chosens suits look, not how the Miraculous look,” Plagg defends, paws up in the air.

 

“You made my hair change color?” Marinette asks blinking in surprise.

 

“Out of everything here, that’s what you choose to think about?” Plagg asks and Marinette shrugs.

 

“Most of this is going over my head,” she tells him and he nods.

 

“It is a lot to take in,” he concedes. Tikki gives them both a weird look but makes no comment.

 

“Could it be they sense a change?” Tikki asks and Master Fu shrugs.

 

“It is possible, Master,” the green Kwami says, speaking up for the first time since they got down here. “There are odd stirrings in the air.”

 

“What does  _ that  _ mean?” Marinette asks with wide eyes.

 

“There is change to come,” the green Kwami says clearing up exactly nothing and easing zero percent of her fears.

 

“Oh, goodie,” Rose mutters next to her and she has to stifle a laugh.

 

“So, are wer transforming or not?” Plagg asks after a beat of silence. “If not, let me have cheese.”

 

“Uhm, so give me some things I can call upon,” Marinette says, wringing her hands together.

 

Plagg digs a paw in his ear before shrugging. “I don’t know this has never happened before.”

 

“But, do you just have the one power of Cataclysm? Because Rose has that Lucky Charm thing and she can also clean up all the damage. Do we get another power?”

 

“Dunno,” Plagg says with a shrug. “A lot of my users only ever used the one and I’m not sure if you can even use any of the ones I can normally grant.”

 

“Helpful,” she tells him, but he just shrugs again. “Fine! Plagg, Claws out.” Might as well get this over with, with how helpful he was being. She knows it’s not really his fault, this has never happened for him before, so he didn’t have any answers for her, but she would still like them.

 

“Oh, I never noticed this was fur before!” Rose cries out before petting the stole around her waist.

 

“Is it soft?” she asks, looking down at her own hands to see them covered in whatever material this was supposed to be.

 

“Very!” Rose says happily, running her hands all through it. Her tail comes up to wrap around Rose’s wrist briefly before settling back down. “It  _ moves!” _ She shrieks out and trying to get it to do it again.

 

“Ahem,” Master Fu coughs out and they both turn to see an amused smile on his face. “Shall we?”

 

“Uh, Cataclysm?” Marinette calls out as soon as Rose and Master Fu are some feet away. She touches the sponge he gave to her, but nothing happens. She doesn’t even feel like a rush of energy like Rose had said happened to her when she called upon her Lucky Charm.

 

“Aww!” Rose cries out, but Marinette just shrugs.

 

“Maybe I don’t have a power,” she says trying not to show her disappointment at that.

 

“Oh, I highly doubt that,” Master Fu tells her. “Maybe you should meditate and look within yourself to find your power.”

 

“Uhhhh?” Was she really getting this advice right now? Was he really trying to be like those old men in the superhero comics Alya had shown her? Was this really her life? She sets the sponge down in front of her and sits down crossing her legs and setting her hands on her knees.

 

Right, just look within herself. She forced down a laugh and closed her eyes. Despite the funniness of it, she needed to focus. This was a serious thing, her not being able to properly use her Miraculous. If the person behind the Akumas found out she couldn’t properly call upon her powers, they could single her out as the weak link and she didn’t want to be the weak link. Not anymore.

 

She could feel her tail swishing behind her in a slow motion, her ears twitching as they catch the faint woosh of the AC coming to life. Her nose crinkles as she smells the leftover stink of cheese Plagg had eaten, her feet somehow sensing the vibrations coming up from the floor. Her hands itched to sink her claws into something, but instead they lazily scratched her knees. It was soothing, in a way, to connect with her senses like this.

 

Slowly, very slowly as she lost herself within the feelings of the suit, a word was coming to her. No, two words, two very different words. One she knew immediately what to do with it. She picked up the sponge in front of her without opening her eyes and whispered, “Catastrophe.”

 

If she had her eyes open she would’ve seen the sponge turn black and give off an evil vibe, but all she felt was a power being transferred from herself to the sponge. She opened them when she heard a gasp and looked down to see the impossibly black sponge.

 

“Do you know what that is?” Master Fu asks her. “What it does?”

 

“It’s…” she searches for the words. “Fate.” A shiver courses through her as she says this. “An evil fate.”

 

“Oh, wow,” Rose says weakly trying to look enthusiastic about it, but her pale face gives her away.

 

“Don’t worry, Rose,” Marinette says with a smile. “I think it’ll only hurt those I deem enemies.”

 

“O-oh?” She still looked nervous, though and Marinette could tell it was because of the ominous vibes coming off of the sponge. She doesn’t tell them about the other word that came to mind, not really knowing how that would help here, but makes a note to discuss it later with Plagg.

 

“Uh, how do I get rid of this?” She asks holding it out.

 

“Very carefully, Marinette,” Master Fu tells her eying the sponge. “Very carefully.” It was the first time he had called her by her name, but something told her that he had known it all along, even when he met her.

 

“But, what does it do, exactly?” She asks looking it over. It was one thing to say it was an evil fate and another to really understand what that meant.

 

“Why not try throwing it at that dummy over there?” Master Fu suggests.

 

“You sure?” She asks but he just gestures for her to continue. She hesitantly sets the dummy as her enemy and throws the sponge at it. Or at least, she  _ tried  _ to throw it at the dummy, but it winds up on the floor beside it and the floorboard it lands on comes loose, throwing the dummy into the air and lodging it into the ceiling. The sponge goes back to its regular yellow color, sitting on the floor as if it played no part in the damage done, perfectly innocent.

 

_ “I’m so sorry!”  _ She yells out, hands coming up to her bright red cheeks.

 

“I see,” Master Fu says rubbing his goatee again. Marinette detransforms and goes over to a corner to wallow in her embarrassment and shame, but Plagg follows after her pestering her for more cheese.

 

“It’s in my bag,” she says pointing to where she had set it next to Rose. “Uhm, I brought more cookies for Tikki if you want them.”

 

“Thanks, Marinette!” Rose says with a more sunnier smile, her cheeks their normal color.

 

“Was it really that bad?” She whispers to Rose, who bites her lip and gives her a look.

 

“It just felt like pure evil, you know? Like I wasn’t supposed to look at it, but like I couldn’t look away no matter how I tried.” Marinette felt her own blood drain from her face.

 

“It won’t feel like that in your own suit, Rose,” the green Kwami says giving Marinette a gentle smile. “It only felt like that because you were so close as a normal human. If it was truly pure evil fate, then all your instincts would go haywire at the sight of it. Perfectly natural.”

 

“I don’t think I ever want to use that again,” Marinette says after the green Kwami is done. She sweeps her hands out in front of her. “Nope.”

 

“Marinette, you kind of have to if we’re to get Nooroo back from that meanie,” Rose says gently.

 

“But- I’ll just be Chat Régalien and help you out to purify the Akumas, but I won’t use that ever again.”

 

“Oh, come now, princess,” Plagg says with a mouthful of cheese. “It’s meant to be bad luck. What do you think Cataclysm was supposed to do? It destroys things, just like this Catastrophe thing does. Big deal.” He shrugs his tiny shoulders and Marinette pouts.

 

“But it scared Rose!” 

 

“Did it scare you?” He asks her looking her dead in the eye and she stops.

 

Had it scared her? She thinks back to when she looked at it, to when she used it, to when she saw the destruction it wrought.

 

“No,” She says weakly, looking down at the ground. It had only really felt like a bad thing when her manners came back to her and she apologized for breaking the ceiling. She just hadn’t liked how Rose had described it.

 

“Well, there you go. Little Bug probably only felt so strongly on account of her being the Creation Holder.”

 

“That does sound like that could be it,” Rose says jumping on the explanation. “I do feel better among things that are being created.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yep!” Rose says and Marinette can’t tell if she’s lying but it’s making her feel better so she doesn’t really care at this point.

 

“Thanks, Rose,” Marinette tells her, giving her a hug.

 

“No problem, partner,” Rose says with a wide smile.

 

They went back upstairs and Master Fu made them more tea that they drank this time. It was really calming and Marinette was grateful for them all trying to ease her fear. They had even set up times to come over to work on their teamwork and powers, Marinette’s mind going over to that pit she saw and wondering if they would have to do some Kung Fu Panda kind of training.

 

And it may have been the little part of her that like the destruction she had been a part of, but she was excited to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since there's no Chat Noir to call Marinette Princess, I figured Plagg would. I love it.


	3. "PARK!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, sooooo, uh, better late than never, right? Sorry! I have too many ideas bobbing about my head and no motivation to write them all down and my writing suffers because of this, but I love this story and will do all I can to continue it.

The next couple of days were quiet on the Akuma front, but both Marinette and Rose were busy practicing with Master Fu and despite feeling drained and tired, Marinette had to say that it was exhilarating to find out all what she could do as Chat Régalien.

 

But it turns out she’s still very clumsy as Marinette, as evidenced as she tries to grab Manon from racing around the room.

 

“Manon! Give that back, Manon!” She shouts trying to stop the girl from hurting herself, or the hat she held in her hand.

 

“But I wanna be a fashion designer, too!” Manon cries out, jumping out of the way and Marinette lands face first on her couch.

 

“Be careful, it’s not finished! Pins, Manon! Pins! You might rui-” Marinette gets cut off as Manon tosses away the hat and dives for Marinette’s phone. Marinette sees Plagg laughing in the distance and throws her hat at him, pointing at him to stay hidden.

 

“I’m gonna vote for Mireille, she’s the best!” Manon shouts and Marinette forgot that she had her phone unlocked.

 

“Hey, my phone!” Marinette says trying to grab it now that Manon was still, but when Marinette grabbed for it, Manon zipped around her and headed to the kitchen. “Why did I agree to this again?” she asks no on in particular and she’s not even going to take Plagg’s soft snickers as a response.

 

The doorbell rings and Marinette pockets her phone lest Manon gets her grubby hands on it again. Alya is standing there nervously, hands playing with a strand of hair.

 

“Alya?” What was she doing here? Despite Marinette taking back that seat in the front with Alya, she had spent most of her time with Rose and Juleka on account of Rose dragging her off at any chance she got. She felt bad that the only times they got to talk was during class, but she had seen Alya talking to Nino and that Adrien person, so Marinette knew she was in good hands.

 

“H-Hey, girl!” Alya says nervously. “Uhm, I got a big scoop! Adrien’s doing a photoshoot at the park! I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?”

 

Just then Manon crashed two pots together making whatever Marinette had been about to say pointless.

 

“Oh, Alya, that’s Manon, one of my mom’s friends’ daughters,” Marinette says with a sigh as she looks at all the pots Manon had dragged out from the cabinets. At least she couldn’t reach the China. “I’m watching her all afternoon, but, if that photoshoot goes longer I’d be glad to join you. I’ve always wanted to see the behind scenes of those.” She smiles awkwardly at Alya hoping that she understood.

 

“I could, I mean- It  _ is _ happening at a park. I’ve babysitted my sisters enough times to know that letting them out to run wild at a park will be better than letting them run wild inside with breakable things.”

 

“That sounds-” Marinette paused to think about it, eyes drifting over to Manon who had just  _ climbed onto the counter! _ “Manon!” She shouts racing over and picking her up.

 

“No! Set me down! I almost had the treasure!”

 

Marinette huffed as she struggled to bring Manon over to the living room. She looked up at Alya at the same time that Manon’s wildly swinging arm elbowed her in the eyebrow.

 

“You said something about a park?” She asked and Alya laughed.

 

“Come on, Manon, let’s go to the park!” Alya says to her excitedly. Manon, having been put down by Marinette, stood there confused.

 

“Who are you?”

 

_ “I  _ am a mythical unicorn from the world of Rispa, disguised as a totally fabulous human girl,” Alya tells her dramatically posing as she does. “I grant magical wishes, but only to little monkeys who behave.”

 

Manon laughs at both her words and the nose boop. “No, you’re not!” She pauses, head tilted to the side to consider this. “Are you?” She blinks up at Alya.

 

“Of course she is, Manon,” Marinette tells her. “Now, will you please listen to her while I grab some things from my room before we leave for the park?”

 

“Yay! Park!” Manon screams, and Marinette sighs. Well, at least she won’t have to deal with the little… angel on her own anymore.

 

She grabs the still laughing Plagg from the air and roughly shoves him in her purse, reaching down to pick up the hat that was thankfully unscathed from Manon’s rough handling. She decides to change jackets, as the one she’s wearing would be a little too hot for the park before changing her shoes to sandals as well. Making sure her pigtails were tight, she walks back down to see Manon trying to climb onto Alya’s shoulders.

 

“Manon, what have I said about the shoulders?” Marinette sighs out, grabbing the house key from the counter and leading them all out the door. Hopefully Miss Chamack won’t mind them going to the park, but she sends a text just in case.

 

“Aww, but I wanted to ride the pony!” Manon cries out and Alya tsk’s.

 

“I’m a  _ Unicorn _ , little monkey,” she chides. “And unicorns never let little monkey’s who don’t behave sit on their shoulders.”

 

Manon slumps before getting a big smile on her face. “I’ll be good, I promise!” She shouts out and Marinette is looking at Alya like she’s a goddess come down to rain miracles upon them.

 

“Alya, marry me,” she tells her and Alya laughs.

 

“If only you weren’t such a pushover, Mari,” Alya says with a teasing smile. “Ask me again when we’re older.”

 

“I’ll hold you to that,” Marinette says with mock seriousness before darting her hand out and stopping Manon from running into traffic.

 

They make it to the park and Marinette leaves Alya to greet Adrien while she rushes over to where Manon is trying to force the merry-go-round to spin.

 

“Make it go fast, Marinette!” Manon demands and Marinette mock salutes, making sure that Manon has a good grip before spinning it. She runs along the outside for a couple of turns before getting too dizzy to continue and stops, stumbling a bit as she tries to get the world to stop spinning. 

 

She can hear Alya’s laughter from where she’s next to the photoshoot and Marinette clears her head enough to be able to stick her tongue out. She holds her hands out to steady herself and it’s a couple more seconds before she feels better. Just in time for the merry-go-round to start to slow down.

 

“Hold on tight, Manon,” Marinette tells her before pushing the bar in front of her to the right. She decides to stay right where she is this time, not wanting to get an even bigger headache. They do two more rounds like this before Manon sees a man selling Mireille balloons and begs Marinette for one. Marinette begrudgingly spends some of her babysitting money on a balloon, but then tries to drag Manon towards the photoshoot.

 

“Come on, Manon,” Marinette whines. “Just for a little bit and then straight back to the merry-go-round, promise!” She didn’t want to miss out on seeing what all went into making a photoshoot run and with her being responsible for Manon, she couldn’t just leave the girl alone, even if they were in a park.

 

Just then Alya runs up to Marinette. “They need an extra to pose with Adrien!” She shouts, eyes wild and cheeks flushed.

 

“What? Seriously?”

 

“Is that boy your boyfriend?” Manon asks, but she’s looking at both of them in confusion.

 

“No,” Marinette and Alya answer at the same time, though Alya’s is far more panicked.

 

“I told them you’d do it,” Alya says a second later, letting the words rush out.

 

“What! Alya! What about Manon?”

 

“It’s okay, I’ll take care of her!” Alya says with a unusually wide grin.

 

“No way, Marinette’s my babysitter!” Manon yells grabbing on to Marinette’s arm in a pout.

 

“Yeah, Alya, I’ve gotta look after Manon,” Marinette says. “Why don’t you do it?”

 

“What? Me!? No! I- I’m much better behind the camera instead of in front of it,” She says shakily but Marinette frowns. Alya, despite how little they’ve known each other, was not one to be shy or nervous really. “Trust me. Unicorns unite! Let's go to Rispa and find us some sad little village kids and grant those wishes! Yee-haw!” She grabs Manon up in her arms and pretends to gallop away towards the merry-go-round.

 

“Yee-haw!” Manon shouts out, already having forgotten her little tantrum about being away from Marinette.

 

Marinette rolls her eyes and is about to go after them when she spots an Akuma fly over head.

 

“Crap!” She cries out, racing over to hide behind a nearby bench. She sends a text to Rose about the Akuma before giving some cheese to Plagg who was dozing off in her purse.

 

“Eat quickly, Plagg, there’s an Akuma.”

 

Plagg sighs as he gulps down the cheese. “Cheese is meant to be savoured.”

 

“Would you rather no cheese?” He gives her a shocked stare.

 

“You wouldn’t!”

 

“Plagg, claws out,” she says with a smirk, catching the cheese that he hadn’t yet eaten, his cries vanishing as he gets sucked up into the ring. Her whip dings with a message and she looks at it to see Rose had responded to say she was coming right over.

 

Marinette looks over to see the Akuma fly away but it’s the cries of help that make her heart stop in her chest. Alya and Manon are trapped in a dome of ice and she can see them shivering from where she is.

 

She sets her whip to wrap around the ice, but it slips right back off. Right, it’s ice. Right. She puts her whip away and starts to slash at the ice with her claws, but stops when more screams come from the direction the Akuma went.

 

“Don’t worry, everything will be okay!” She tells Alya and Manon, seeing the fear in both of their eyes.

 

“Where is Marinette?” Manon asks and it almost breaks her heart.

 

“She hasn’t forgotten about you, Manon,” Marinette tells her, wanting more than anything to give her a reassuring hug.

 

“How do you know my name?” Oh, crap. Right, she wasn’t Marinette right now, she was Chat Régalien.

 

“Uhh, Marinette told me!” She says with a too wide smile. “She’s coming right back, promise.” Okay, she shouldn’t have said that. How will she explain this to them when the Akuma is over?

 

More screams tear her focus from them and Alya clears her throat.

 

“It’s okay, Chat Régalien. Go,” Alya tells her, arms tightening around Manon. She gives Marinette a weak smile. Marinette can hear the ice thickening and has a choice to make. She can either stay to claw her way through the ice and let the Akuma remain unchecked, or she can go and defeat the Akuma and leave Alya and Manon trapped until then.

 

She puts her hand on the ice, the claw marks she made already disappearing. “I’ll come back,” she tells them before taking out her whip and swinging over to a rooftop.

 

She catches up in no time and leaps over the Akuma to see her casting random wind bursts with her parasol.

 

“Hey, Wind Freak, what’s with all the terrorizing?” She asks as she lashes out with her whip. Nothing too hard, more of to gage the Akuma than anything else. The Akuma growls and makes a blast of wind at her, but she doges gracefully as she can and lands on top of some random car. “Didn’t anyone tell you to blow smarter, not harder?”

 

Apparently the Akuma didn’t find her trash talk amusing.

 

“My name isn’t Wind Freak!” She shouts out all shrill. “It’s Climatika!” She moves her parasol again and this time Marinette can’t move out of the way fast enough and gets send flying over a couple of buildings.

 

Luckily she sees LadyBlush and reaches out with her whip, that LadyBlush catches and lowers her to the ground with a giggle.

 

“And here I thought cats always land on their feet,” Rose teases much to Marinette’s annoyance.

 

“It’s not my fault!” She whines, but before she could catch Rose up on the Akuma, Climatika is already upon them.

 

“We should be expecting lightning storms like, right  _ now! _ ” She shouts, parasol raised to point at the darkening sky. The air crackles and suddenly lightning arcs towards them. Rose yelps and Marinette isn’t 100% sure, but it feels like every hair on her body is raised as she dances from foot to foot to avoid electrocution.

 

Marinette tries to lash out with her whip, but the wind blows the tip off course and she growls in frustration.

 

“Black ice,” Climatika says, parasol pointed at the road underneath them. Before Marinette can jump out of the way, another gust of wind knocks the breath from her and sends her racing down the street, foot claws trying to bury themselves in the ice beneath them to no avail. She hears Rose yelp as she’s blown off course and can’t help but wonder if the wings are a hindrance right now or not.

 

“R- LadyBlush!” She calls out when the wind dies down. She looks everywhere but can’t find her. Fortunately, the Akuma is consumed with the face of that winner for the new weather girl and suddenly things click into place. This must be the one who lost.

 

“Boo!” Rose whispers into her ear and she barely controls the shriek she would’ve produced. Rose laughs as she’s hovering off the ground, wings a blur as they hold her upside down, belly in the air in her amusement.

 

“Could we focus?” Marinette says with a sigh, though a small smile is on her lips.

 

“Did you know your reactions are just like a cat?” Rose asks as she takes a look at where the Akuma is destroying the billboard. “Geez, what’s her problem?”

 

“I think this is that one girl who lost the weather girl contest,” Marinette tells her and Rose gasps.

 

“Oh, no! I forgot that was today! I was totally gonna vote for-” Marinette puts a finger to her mouth.

 

“If you’re about to say M-I-R-E-I-L-L-E, then I don’t think you want the Akuma to know that,” Marinette tells her, head bobbing to the side to show that the Akuma was now done with the billboard and was now making their way towards where they were crouched behind a car.

 

“What? Mireille? No! I was gonna vote for Aurore!” Rose says, not catching on to the Akuma being close. “Who would vote for Mireille?”

 

It seemed like the Akuma wasn’t after them, but when she heard what Rose said she locked onto them and flew over to where they were. Marinette tenses and braces for the fighting, but Climatika surprises her by grabbing Rose’s hands and looking at her in surprised joy.

 

“Really?” She asks and Rose has to swallow down her immediate response of screaming in the Akuma’s face.

 

Rose glances at Marinette, but she just shrugs both having no context for this and also wanting to tell Rose that she told her so.

 

“Uh, y-yeah,” Rose tells Climatika with an awkward smile. “Totally! I mean, Mireille wasn’t even as good as Aurore!” She gains confidence as she continues her ramble and Marinette has to hold back slapping her forehead in frustration.

 

A purple butterfly outline appears over Climatika’s eyes, turing the skin surrounding her eyes a purple hue. Her face pinches in anger and she nods as if hearing something, hands tightening around Rose’s in a way Marinette doesn’t like.

 

“Yes, Hawk Moth,” Climatika says, the butterfly disappearing.

 

Marinette let's loose her whip and wraps it around Climatika’s forearms, tugging with all her strength. Rose’s hands are free and she hops back, wings fluttering behind her as she does so.

 

“Here’s the latest forecast for the first day of summer!” She shouts, umbrella aloft. “Looks like Mother Nature had a change of plans. Summer vacation is officially over!” Clouds form over them, dark and full of thunder. “Prepare for the worst weather in history!”

 

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Marinette asks Rose, shouting over the gathering winds.

 

“About the parasol?” Rose shouts back, wings blurring behind her to keep her stead in the powerful winds.

 

“You want to try or should I?” Marinette asks.

 

“Both?” Rose suggests and they nod at each other before coming at Climatika from different sides to hopefully catch her off guard.

 

“In Climatika’s world, it’s winter wonderland  _ forever! _ ” Climatika moves her parasol around her, a gust of wind pushing straight through Marinette’s chest and sending her carrening further than before.

 

Marinette only stops when she hits a wall of windows, glad she didn’t break them as she slides down, the windows squeaking as she goes. She lands in a garden and puts a hand to her throbbing head.

 

She growls in frustration and hops to her feet, ready to end this already. Her whip launches her into the air and she can see Climatika from this position. She’s learned this trick, practiced it a good hundred times and feels confident enough so all it takes is her sending out her whip again and pulling with all her might to send her careening straight for the Akuma.

 

She collides hard into Climatika’s side, spinning them around and digging her claws into the street to slow them down, Climatika clutched to her chest. When they stop, Marinette releases her and grabs the parasol from her hands.

 

“No!” Climatika shouts out, face purpling as the butterfly hovers over her eyes once more. “Give it back to me!” She lunges for the parasol but Marinette breaks it over her knee before there’s even a chance of Climatika taking it back from her.

 

The black butterfly flies out of the broken parasol and she watches it go, that second word echoing in her mind as she looks at it. Before she could even contemplate uttering the word, Rose’s voice shouts out and she catches the butterfly in her staff.

 

“Miraculous LadyBlush!” Rose shouts, sending a wave of pink ladybugs to clean up the mess they had made of the city.

 

“Uh, what am I doing here?” Aurore asks looking around in fear.

 

“It’s alright,” Marinette says trying to reassure her. “You’re safe and that’s all that matters. Are you feeling okay?” She leans down to give the girl a hand.

 

“I- I think so?” she says blinking a couple of times to take everything in. “I- I didn’t win the contest, did I?”

 

“No, but you should have!” Rose chimes in. “I’m so sorry, Aurore, I totally forgot to vote for you!”

 

“That’s… alright,” Aurore says, clearly not knowing what to say to the fact that LadyBlush was a fan of hers.

 

“Better luck next time?” Marinette suggests and Aurore gives her a small smile.

 

“Perhaps.” She goes over and picks up her newly restored parasol. “Thank you.” She bites her lip and looks as if she wants to say more, but Rose’s earrings give out a beep and she gasps.

 

“Gotta bug out!” She says cheerfully, a small gust of wind hitting Marinette once again as Rose takes off.

 

“Chat!” A voice shouts out and it breaks her out of her spell. “Chat Régalien, anything to say about the latest Akuma Incident?” Mrs. Chamak asks, microphone held out to catch her sound bite.

 

“Park!” Marinette shouts out as she remembers Manon. She quickly swings her way over, giving the spot she landed in a once over for prying eyes before dropping her transformation. She runs over to the merry-go-round and sees the ice surrounding it has disappeared and she sighs in relief. “Manon!” She calls out.

 

“Marinette!” Manon yells, rushing over to her. Marinette picks her up despite her size and holds her to her chest. 

 

“I’m so sorry, Manon!” She tells the girl, trying to hold the tears back as she hugs her. 

 

“Were you okay?” Alya asks as she comes up to them, a worried look in her eyes.

 

“I hid out on a bush and tried to make my way here, but the wind kept pushing me away. What about you guys?” Marinette asks to cover up her lie. She hated lies. “Are you okay?”

 

“We’re fine,” Alya says, waving off her concern. “I told her a couple of stories and before we knew it the ice was gone.”

 

Marinette looks over Alya and then pulls Manon back a little to look her over as well.

 

“Are you okay, Manon?” Marinette asks, but before the girl could answer her mother’s voice calling out her name caught their attention.

 

“Manon! Manon!” Mrs. Chamak looked blanched and so worried.

 

“Mommy!” Manon struggles from Marinette’s grasp before running over to her mother, getting picked up and hugged again.

 

“Are you okay, my love?” Mrs. Chamak asks, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

 

“The Unicorn protected me!” Manon replies.

 

“Unicorn?” Mrs. Chamak looks over to Marinette for clarification.

 

“My friend Alya and Manon got trapped under the merry-go-round,” Marinette explained. “I kept getting blown away by the wind and couldn’t get back ‘til just now.” At least that wasn’t really a lie.

 

“I only remembered that you texted you’d be here when one of the heroes, Chat Régalien, shouted out the word ‘park’,” Mrs. Chamak says.

 

“Oh yeah, she did try to get me and Manon out of the ice when that Akuma trapped us in there,” Alya says remembering. Marinette tries to keep her face from showing her guilt.

 

“She knows my name, mommy!” Manon points out happily and Marinette hopes no one saw her flinch.

 

“Oh yeah, Mari,” Alya says as she turns to her. “Don’t think I’m not getting an interview exclusive about your meeting with Chat Régalien!”

 

“You met her?” Mrs. Chamak asks, shifting into reporter mode.

 

“Er, just the once,” Marinette says shifting uneasily. Why can’t her life be simple? Why’d she have to be a superhero?

 

“And?” Alya and Mrs. Chamak ask at the same time.

 

“And she…. Was nice?” She doesn’t know what they want her to say. And what? What’s with the and?

 

“You’ve gotta come up with something better when we do the interview,” Alya tells her, deflating a little.

 

“We’ll come by later for what we left at your house, alright, Marinette?” Mrs. Chamak asks and Marinette nods.

 

“Of course! Sorry about dragging Manon into an Akuma Incident,” Marinette says hoping she wouldn’t be blamed or banned from seeing Manon ever again.

 

“It was a day at the park, Marinette,” Mrs. Chamak says with an easy smile. “And you weren’t the one to cause the Akuma.”

 

Marinette sighs in relief, waving them goodbye before collapsing into Alya.

 

“I wanna go home,” She mumbles into Alya’s shoulder.

 

“Alright then, off we go,” Alya says, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and leading them in the direction of Marinette’s house. “Can I get a free pastry for my traumatising day?”

 

“Was it really that bad?” Marinette asks in a small voice, shoulders stiffening.

 

“A- A little,” Alya whispers, rubbing her hand up and down Marinette’s arm. “It was dark and cold and I was scared for us and you and LadyBlush and Chat Régalien. Plus, I missed out on filming the fight,” she adds after a slight pause. Marinette lets out a small laugh.

 

“I’m sorry,” she says, the guilt in her heart growing. “I should’ve been there with you guys.” Of course, had she been stuck, Rose would’ve had to deal with the Akuma all on her own and that wasn’t an option either.

 

“I shouldn’t have pushed you into doing that photoshoot,” Alya says back.

 

“Yeah, what was that about? Didn’t they offer it to you first?”

 

Alya tenses beside her. “I- Yeah, but I- that photograph thing I told you about! I prefer to be on the other side, is all.”

 

“Alya, I know we’ve only been friends for a couple of days, but you can tell me anything, I promise.” Marinette wraps her own arm around Alya’s shoulders so they’re side hugging and gives her an encouraging smile.

 

“I like him,” Alya confesses, words coming out fast. “A-Adrien, I mean. I know it’s more of a crush on someone who really isn’t my type, but I like him and I can’t really be around him without blushing like crazy.”

 

“But you’re friends with him,” Marinette says not getting how Alya, so sure of herself Alya could be this way. “I see you and Nino talking with him at lunch and in the classroom and hallways and you don’t seem nervous or anything.”

 

“Oh good,” Alya says with a big sigh. “I’m- Usually I’m okay, but when he smiles or the sun catches his hair just right, well, I mean, you’ve seen how hot he is.” Marinette giggles.

 

“But he isn’t your type? How does that work?”

 

“I don’t know,” Alya groans out. “It’s so annoying because I know he isn’t my type and yet there I am acting all giggly and nervous around him. At least I don’t stutter, though. That would make it even worse.”

 

“You just need a new crush,” Marinette says patting her on the back. “Or maybe exposure therapy would work.”

 

“It would help if both the guys I’m friends with weren’t so hot,” Alya grumbles.

 

Marinette pauses from opening the side door that leads directly to their house.

 

“You think Nino’s hot?”

 

“You don’t?”

 

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve known him since we were little kids. I guess I never thought of him like that,” she says with a shrug, opening the door and leading them to the kitchens where her Papa was baking. “A plate of cookies and croissants please,” she says giving her Papa her puppy eyes. (Will she have to change that to Kitty eyes now?)

 

“Anything for you, my dear,” her Papa says, giving her a kiss on her forehead and letting her pick out from the fresh baked selection. She adds some cheese bread to the plate as well, making sure to leave the good looking ones for the display.

 

“Thanks, Papa!” She kisses his cheeks and leads Alya to her room.

 

“You know what would help?” Alya says after having a croissant.

 

“What?” Marinette was thrown for a second, what were they talking about again? She had been distracted trying to sneak Plagg his cheese bread, already knowing his complaint of it not being Camembert.

 

“It would help if you were around,” Alya says grabbing another croissant. “I mean, during lunch. It would help my poor heart if I wasn’t the sole focus of two hot guys.”

 

“You love that, though, don’t you?” Marinette asks with a teasing smile.

 

“There’s only so much adoration a girl can take,” Alya says dramatically, placing a hand to her forehead and getting croissant crumbs all over her hair and face.

 

Marinette laughs at her friend. “I’ll try. I know I haven’t been hanging around with you much and I’m sorry, but I’m working on it.” And now her guilt was back, great.

 

“Yeah, what’s up with that? You leave me alone with two hot guys for Rose and her girlfriend.”

 

“Oh no, Rose and Juleka aren’t together. Well, not yet. They both are a little stubborn about it, refusing they even like the other.” She rolls her eyes as she thinks of them denying the attraction.

 

“And so you’re trying to help them get together? By making Juleka jealous of how much time you’re spending with Rose? Because I’ve got to tell you, it’s working really well.”

 

“What? It is?” Marinette had done no such thing, but this way she wouldn’t have to lie about what she was actually doing with Rose every day. Plus, maybe this could help them get together. Finally.

 

“Big time,” Alya says with a big nod. “Juleka looked so heartbroken when Rose skipped past her and went straight to you the other day.”

 

Okay maybe that wasn’t such a good plan anymore, not that that’s what she purposely meant to do.

 

“She did? Oh no, I’ve got to tell Rose. Or should I tell Juleka? I should tell Juleka that me and Rose aren’t like that.” She picks up her phone to tell Juleka but then realizes that it would probably be better to talk with her in person.

 

“Maybe,” Alya says with a shrug. “You do the homework yet?” She asks a bit later and Marinette feels bad for neglecting her friend while she freaked out.

 

“Homework!” She runs over to her backpack, tripping over several misplaced items Plagg left lying on the floor. “What homework?” Marinette asks a second later as she stares into her backpack. “It’s Saturday.” She glares at Alya.

 

“Got you!” Alya laughs out. Marinette breaks and starts to laugh as well.

 

“Don’t do that to me! I believed you!”

 

“Your face!” Alya laughs out.

 

“You meanie!” Marinette says with a pretend pout. “I already did the homework!”

 

“You nerd,” Alya says calming down. “Everyone knows you do the homework on Sunday at the last possible minute.”

 

“I never got it done if I didn’t do it early,” Marinette explains with a shake of her head. Alya nods as if her words were very wise.

 

“Very true, very true. I should do that, too, but I never do. Is that the time?” She looks at the clock on Marinette’s desk and stands. “My mom is probably worrying herself to death! I gotta go!” She gives Marinette a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before running down the stairs and out the door.

 

Her footsteps grow louder again and she pokes her head up through the trap door. “Don’t forget about that interview,” she warns with a finger point and then she’s off again.

 

Marinette groans and slides herself to the floor, wishing she hadn’t said anything about her stupid superhero self. Plagg snickers somewhere to her left and Marinette refrains from throwing a pillow at him, knowing from experience he’d just phase through it.

 

“Ugh, Plagg! What am I going to do!? What do I say?” She hides her face behind her hands and groans again.

 

“Looks like you’ll have to come up with something good, too,” Plagg teases, snickering again and Marinette sits up and tosses the closest yarn skein at his body. He floats around it, big dumb smile on his face and she groans once more. “Why don’t you ask Rose?”

 

Marinette pauses in her grumbling and looks at Plagg. “That’s actually not a bad idea,” she says eyeing him up.

 

“I always have good ideas,” Plagg tells her, affronted at her shock.

 

“Tikki told me about your yarn phase,” Marinette told him as she got up to grab her phone.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Plagg says, crossing his arms and turning around so his back faced her.

 

“Sure you don’t,” Marinette says with a smile. Hopefully her and Rose could come up with an idea to either stall Alya or fool her, and hopefully the idea involved the least amount of lying to her new friend.


End file.
